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Senator Dino Melaye, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State has blamed his electoral loss on Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Melaye who came third in the November 11 governorship election in Kogi described the process as shameful, adding that the election was massively rigged against him.
While appearing on Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today’ on Monday, November 13, 2023, the governorship candidate said the INEC boss is the main problem of Nigeria’s democracy.
Melaye who scored 46,362 votes in the governorship election accused Yakubu of masterminding his electoral loss.
The PDP candidate lost the governorship battle to the flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Usman Ododo who was declared winner of the poll with 446,237 votes
Speaking on the programme, Melaye said, “There was no election and I am going to prove it here, there was only allocation of votes by INEC. The election is shameful and I sympathise with this country and the citizens of Kogi state and it's a big shame that Mahmood Yakubu who has children and his co-travellers would manifest the kind of satanism that took place in Kogi yesterday.
He said as a politician, he had seen all kinds of rigging including inflation of results and snatching of ballot papers, but he had never seen the kind of electoral manipulations that allegedly took place in Kogi on Saturday.
“I have never seen this kind of fraud in my life, I’ve seen rigging, I've seen inflation of results, I’ve seen snatching of ballot papers but what we saw yesterday is legendary, it’s shameful. Mahmood Yakubu must cancel the election in Kogi state, go and check the backend results, it is disgraceful.”
Asked how he got the backend results from the INEC server, Melaye said he is a certified private investigator.
He said his votes were deliberately reduced to ensure he came third in the governorship election.
Melaye said he has submitted his petition with evidence to the electoral body, adding that the commission has been given seven days to review the petition.